Increased Exports & Big Ag Won't Feed the World

So there's a big myth circling around right now that in a couple decades, we won't be able to feed the world's population. The global population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. There are currently 7 billion people living on Earth, and so many go hungry, that this assumption makes sense. But it's not true. We produce more than enough food today: we grow over 4,000 calories per person per day, or twice what we need.

We just don't distribute the food correctly. In 2008, we grew more food than ever before; more people were obese than ever before; food companies made more profit than ever before; and more people went hungry than ever before. If all the food we grow gets turned into money-yielding byproducts, like high fructose corn syrup, packaged cereals, and microwave dinners, of course it won't feed the world. And of course it won't keep the world healthy.

The solution to global hunger is not Big Ag, food exports, or prepackaged meals. According to over 400 of the world's leading scientists and naturalists (IAASTD), genetically modified crops and chemical agriculture have not actually been proven to increase crop yield. Experts from all over the world agree that the future of agriculture rests in local food production, not increased exports. Local food production, on the other hand, dramatically decreases energy use and pollution, while focusing on local necessities and therefore producing more of what is needed, in the ways needed. If farmers are taught how to work with their land and climate, instead of relying on expensive chemicals and GMOs, we will see a better solution to hunger.

But of course, the truth of local food keeps getting ignored in favor of giant corporate moneymaking opportunities. In Obama's State of the Union Address, he touted the need for America to produce more exports in order to support more jobs here in America. Well, yes, we should produce more of what we need here... but we should also keep it here. Big Ag companies want to turn global hunger into a market opportunity. Global hunger is a humanitarian issue, not an opportunity for another American moneymaking monopoly.